In many ways, 8½ defined what modern cinema is. I feel its influence all over the place. It’s expressionistic, and it’s also a film that describes the feelings of confusion that we are all dealing with living in the modern world. All the signs and symbols are messed up, and everything is subjective. It’s like some aspect of cinema reached a limit in this film, and I don’t know how it can be surpassed.

As Fellini noted, “what I should like most is that 8 ½ should help banish the neurotic complexes that obsess people who want to change others. I think people should be taken as they are. If the film restored this sense of freedom, then it succeeded”. And in this, 8 ½ succeeds admirably, as a document of personal liberation for its director, and a document of the triumph of the human creative spirit for its audience.

Federico Fellini’s two biggest smash hits were both filmed in black-and-white. But we recall La Dolce Vita as black — the chic night of the Via Veneto. And we recall 8½ as white — the clouds through which the film’s hero floats in the opening dream sequence; the steam room billowing at his spa; the blown-out sunshine blinding his stone courtyards. 8½ is the ethereal one.

First, you're shell-shocked by it's style, it's sheer freedom, it's shots. This film is a virus, you won't notice it crawling inside of you until you're unable to sleep at night because of how haunting these images are. Then, you unravel it further and begin to understand the character who must confront every director's worst nightmare: compromises. Past, present, dream, sex, love, success, integrity, he wants it all

This is one of the best movies ever made in my opinion. Fellini is a master, and this is him at his best. The film is worth watching just to look at the exceptionally beautiful women. The dream and fantasy scenes may be the best I have ever seen.

This film is such an honest yet slightly surrealist look at the creative mind and how it clashes with those around it. It deals with love in a way that is cunning yet humane. One of my favorite, if not number one, of Fellini's.

Organised chaos: such is (not) making a film apparently but such is life and dreams. An extraordinary synthesis that is the whole from it’s parts; a rag bag in probably anyone else’s hands, but here a beautiful and seductive unity of procrastination, avoidance, and mess. One of those films that rewards repeated viewings: each time a new insight revealed and reminder of life affirmed.

No matter how many times seen, Fellini's masterpiece has its deserved place in the summit of cinema's most self-reflective moments. Labyrinthine and redeeming (the last sequence condenses the truth of life's affirmation in all its imperfections and incomplete attempts at resolutions) it fuses with plenty of theology and psychoanalysis polar opposites of sorts in what is a sublime work of (any) art. Unsurpassed!